Fred Hansen: Tri-Met benefits people and air in Portland

When someone boards a bus or train, it not only benefits them, it benefits the entire community. Transit provides alternatives to driving. That means less pollution and fewer cars on the road, which helps the local economy.

Each day in the Portland, Ore., metro area, the Tri-Met system eliminates 180,000 car trips. Imagine any community with that many more car trips on the roads. Reducing car traffic keeps the local economy rolling: It makes room on the road to transport goods and services.

Transit use has helped the Portland metro area reach and keep its EPA attainment status. Air-quality violations would burden the entire region and everyone in it with expensive cleaning options and potential limitations to economic development.

In a June 2001 study, Air Quality Benefits to Portland Area Industries from Tri-Met Service, consultant John F. Kowalczyk summarized: "Tri-Met transit service significantly reduces emissions of air pollutants in the Portland-Vancouver airshed, thereby helping to attain and maintain compliance with federal ambient-air quality standards. These emissions reductions also indirectly help avoid additional costly federal emission control requirements on existing and expanding industries and help keep the Portland area from being at a competitive disadvantage in attracting new industries "

Ridership is a key measurement to determine transit success. Tri-Met provides about 300,000 trips each day, and ridership continues to grow and set new records:

For nine straight years, Tri-Met has sustained ridership growth of more than 5 percent a year. It's one of a few transit agencies in the nation that has seen ridership outstrip both regional population growth and auto use, as measured by vehicle miles traveled.

While Tri-Met provides more than 84 million rides each year, it also eliminates 65 million car trips during the same period.

Those reduced car trips reduce air emissions by 4.2 tons each day.

In Portland, transit planning is closely linked with regional planning. Transit corridors are established in areas with the greatest population concentration or growth, giving the most people the best transit access. Therefore, Tri-Met can focus more of its service in areas where it really counts. Linking land-use planning and transit development has proved an effective development tool.

MAX light rail is a proven catalyst for creating transit-oriented development. More than $2.9 billion in residential and commercial development has occurred within walking distance of the 54 MAX stations along the 38-mile line since the decision to build.

Transit enhances the quality of life in the Portland metro area by providing options for people who use it for their everyday commutes or find it an easy way to get to events, attractions and shopping centers. In fact, 83 percent of Tri-Met riders are choice riders -- they have a car available or choose not to own a car and ride Tri-Met.

Imagine what Portland roads would look like and how businesses needing to move goods and services would suffer under the tremendous traffic increase if transit service were not available or used. Every individual who chooses transit over an auto trip makes our roads a little less congested and our air a bit cleaner, helping preserve our livability.